Several years ago I read something that said that broadcaster Ernie Harwell somehow got the people who keep official major-league baseball records, to omit no-hitters in which the no-hit pitcher loses, from official records. This would include Harvey Haddix’s masterpiece and no-hit games–for nine innings, anyway–by the likes of Bobo Newsom, Bob Wicker, Hippo Vaughn, and Jim Maloney, and possibly the astonishing no-hit loss by Yankees pitcher Andy Hawkins. (In Sports Illustrated, it said Hawkins “gave nary a knock to the White Sox, but lost the game 4-0.”
So, did Harwell have anything to do with this?
They did change the rules; I don’t know that Harwell had anything to do with it unless he served on the commitee.
They did not remove losing pitchers per se. What the rule change was intended to eliminate were the oddities such as Denny Martinez’ five inning perfect game, Ernie Shore’s perfect game (Babe Ruth walked the first batter and was ejected - Shore came on - the runner was caught stealing and Shore retired all 26 he faced), and the 9 inning no-hitters that were broken up later. There have been 4 official no-hitters in which the pitcher lost.
Now an opinion. As usual with MLB lately, this was done half right. My change would have been to link no-hitters to complete games. If the pitcher gets a mark under the CG column, then he should get credit for a no-hitter. Thus Martinez would get one, and Hippo Vaughan (the double no-hitter in 1917) would not.
If I may nitpick, Bobo Holloman WON his no-hit game against the Philadelphia Athletics, so he wouldn’t be affected by any such rule change.
I know Alva L. (Bobo) Holloman won his game–his first major league start–but he was a flash in the pan. Louis N. (Bobo) Newsom allowed a hit in the tenth and lost. (Newsom lasted 21 seasons in the majors; his W-L was 211-222.)
Harwell or no, I think it’s unfair to remove the “oddities” from the list; It wasn’t the fault of Harvey Haddix that the Pirates did not score at all in that game. As for Ernie Shore, there’s a section of the rules crediting a pitcher with a shutout if he relieves the starting pitcher under the conditions in which Shore relieved Ruth. I think the exclusion of the oddities is some cookie-cutter let’s-eliminate-all-the-strange-records philosophy. :mad:
Martinez pitched a real perfect game. Are you thinking of David Palmer?
Forgive the hallucination. Even though the OP said “Newsom” plain as day, I STILL thought I’d seen “Holloman.”
I’ll go sit quietly in the corner now.
Yes, my apologies to Denny.